Good morning, and welcome to the Zark News Daily Briefing for Thursday, October 1, 2026. Today’s video covers the stories moving markets and geopolitics this morning — from Iran’s extraordinary direct message to the American public as its currency collapses, to a dangerous flare-up on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, a bond-market rout pushing borrowing costs to a 24-year high, a federal probe of the biggest AI labs, and a major product launch from OpenAI.
Here are the day’s biggest stories:
- Iran tells US public Trump’s war has failed as rial hits record low — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard delivered an extraordinary public message to Americans, declaring that President Trump’s pressure campaign against Tehran has failed even as the Iranian rial crashed to a record low.
- Pakistani airstrikes kill 9 in Afghanistan as tensions flare — Kabul says Pakistani overnight strikes killed nine women and children in Helmand and Kunar provinces, in a dangerous escalation between the two neighbors.
- 10-year Treasury yield hits 24-year high as bond selloff deepens — The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.342%, its highest since 2002, as the bond rout deepened amid warnings from Fed officials against interest-rate cuts.
- FTC opens investigation of OpenAI and Anthropic over AI-safety claims — The Federal Trade Commission is preparing civil subpoenas for OpenAI and Anthropic over whether the AI companies misled consumers about the safety of their models.
- Altman unveils OpenAI “Dots” AI agent after scrapping model over safety — At DevDay 2026, Sam Altman launched Dots — always-on AI agents powered by GPT-6 Astra — a day after the company scrapped a model over safety concerns.
- New SNAP rules take effect as 5 million lose food-stamp benefits — New SNAP rules take effect Thursday, with states now required to fund 75% of administrative costs and tighter work requirements set to strip benefits from around 5 million people.
Watch the full video briefing above for today’s complete rundown, and follow Zark News for continuing coverage throughout the day.